Cover of A Shadow in SummerB-
FinishedOctober 20, 2018
GradeB-
GenreFantasy
PublisherMacmillan, 2006
★ Review · October 20, 2018

A Shadow in Summer

by Daniel Abraham


I didn't care about the characters or the plot. I didn't hate them, but I really wasn't invested. There was no character that I wanted to see win.

Publisher Description

The powerful city-state of Saraykeht is a bastion of peace and culture, a major center of commerce and trade. Its economy depends on the power of the captive spirit, Seedless, an andat bound to the poet-sorcerer Heshai for life. Enter the Galts, a juggernaut of an empire committed to laying waste to all lands with their ferocious army. Saraykeht, though, has always been too strong for the Galts to attack, but now they see an opportunity. If they can dispose of Heshai, Seedless's bonded poet-sorcerer, Seedless will perish and the entire city will fall. With secret forces inside the city, the Galts prepare to enact their terrible plan. In the middle is Otah, a simple laborer with a complex past. Recruited to act as a bodyguard for his girlfriend's boss at a secret meeting, he inadvertently learns of the Galtish plot. Otah finds himself as the sole hope of Saraykeht, either he stops the Galts, or the whole city and everyone in it perishes forever.

Where this fits · 2018 reading log
Book 39 of 2018 · the 26th Fantasy read of the year.